Amit Arora, M.D.

2017 Distinguished Young Alumnus

Though he was born in Montreal, Canada, Amit Arora was raised in Irmo, South Carolina, thanks to his father’s engineering career which brought the family to warmer climates. During high school, Amit decided to pursue a career in medicine. “I always saw medicine as an opportunity to help those who were most vulnerable and who could not help themselves,” he recalled.

Amit began to fulfill his dream with educational preparation at the University of South Carolina Honors College. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Emory University in Atlanta and was then admitted to the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine, from which he received a doctor of medicine degree in 2002.

He completed his neurology residency at the University of Alabama Hospital, serving as chief neurology resident in the program from 2005 to 2006. Amit completed an additional year as an Epilepsy Fellow at UAB.

Throughout his Neurology Residency, Amit was recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the Ortho-McNeil Top Scholar Epilepsy Award and the American Epilepsy Society’s National EpiFellows Award in 2006. He was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 2007.

Amit’s journey to Huntsville, Alabama where he practices neurology today was undoubtedly influenced by fellow medical student who later became his wife, Aruna Thotakura. Aruna is also a UAB Medical School graduate (2003) and completed a Neurology Residency, Chief Residency and Neuromuscular Fellowship at UAB. A native of Huntsville, Aruna and her husband are professionally known today as Neurology Consultants of Huntsville. To many of their friends in Huntsville they’re also known as Asha and Avi’s parents.

From the opening of their medical practice, Amit was very active in advancing neurology care for his community. Since 2008, he has served as medical director of the stroke program at Huntsville Hospital, a regional Primary Stroke Center for north Alabama which treats more than a thousand stroke/TIA patients per year.

In 2015, Dr. Arora helped the hospital establish the North Alabama Neuro-Stroke Network which uses telemedicine technology to coordinate neurological emergency care at hospitals in the Huntsville Hospital Health System. Dr. Arora is the medical director of the North Alabama Neuro-Stroke Network.

Dr. Arora also serves as the chairman of the hospital’s Department of Medicine which represents more than 500 physicians in multiple specialties. His medical leadership at Huntsville Hospital resulted in his appointment to the board of the Health Care Authority of the City of Huntsville in 2015. The Authority governs Huntsville Hospital Health System which is the third largest publicly-owned health system in the nation. Dr. Arora is one of two physicians on the nine-member board.

The Madison County Medical Society has also benefited from Dr. Arora’s leadership as he has recently completed a two-year stint as president of this 750 member professional organization. He also serves as a Counsellor with the Medical Association of the State of Alabama (MASA) and is the current president of the Alabama Academy of Neurology. Dr. Arora shares his expertise and experience with future physicians as a clinical assistant professor of neurology for the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine’s Huntsville Campus.